


Making Dead Men Deader

by fanwit



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 08:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17545802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanwit/pseuds/fanwit
Summary: Arthur gets a request for help from his friend, Alastor Moody.





	Making Dead Men Deader

_Tap. Tap._ Arthur rolls over with a groan. He buries his face deeper into his pillow. The tapping continues. Arthur wishes whatever it is, it'll go away.

Then there's a loud squeal. Arthur jumps out of bed, wand out, and looks to the window. It's an owl. To be more specific, a very angry owl. Oh shit, he is so going to be killed by that owl. The owl stares at him indignantly. Arthur sighs and puts his wand back down on the nightstand. Then the owl hoots.

"Be quiet, you might wake up Molly," Arthur mumbles as he walks over to the window. There is no danger of that, Molly's a heavy sleeper. She's slept through a few of the twins' explosions before. That's why Arthur always has the night duty with the kids. He opens the window and takes the letter. 

Arthur offers the owl some of Errol's kibble kept near the window. Molly's not quite up to keeping small dead mice in their bedroom unfortunately. Arthur wishes she was, Errol isn’t in any shape for hunting. The owl huffs. Arthur puts the kibble down and opens the letter.

_Bring shovel, towels and whatever gets rid of blood._

The very familiar handwriting is what gets him moving. If Alastor needs help, he's bringing help.

At the shed, after a moment of hesitation, Arthur grabs his sturdiest shovel instead of the one he was planning to toss. More reliable for digging a grave, from the sound of it. He grabs some rust-stained towels, easier to hide blood in. Inside, he grabs Rid-of-Blood from the medicine cabinet, it technically isn't meant for large amounts of blood but Arthur knows how to maximize its use. He also picks up his chest and puts everything in. On his way out, Errol hoots confusedly from his perch. Arthur pats Errol on the head.

"Just a bit of a problem Mad-Eye's got," Arthur informs Errol. "It'll be solved in no time flat."

Errol shifts his position on the perch, wings waving slightly.

"I should be back in time for your breakfast."

Errol hoots satisfiedly.

The trip isn't long, he just Apparates nearby and walks as if he's on a midnight stroll. The chest is safely shrunk and in his jacket pocket. He's soon at Alastor's front door. Before he can knock, Alastor's opening the door and he looks even more panicked than usual. Arthur steps inside without saying anything and heads straight for the living room. He hears Alastor close the door.

Arthur definitely should be panicking at this point. He's been asked to help cover up a murder. But it's Alastor and he's sure Alastor had a good reason. He steps into the living room then winces at the amount of blood all over the floor.

There are two men lying on the floor. The taller one looks awfully familiar. _Crouch,_ Arthur realises. The man looks just like Barty Crouch Junior who died in Azkaban a year after he was arrested. Indeed, the resemblance is shocking to the point Arthur's convinced it _is_ him. A Death Eater after an Auror would make sense.

The second man also looks familiar. He was much shorter than Crouch Junior and Arthur tries to recall where he could've seen that face before. The man isn't a known Death Eater. Then Arthur remembers yet another man who died, who was killed by Black.

Crouch Junior and Pettigrew. They should be dead. Arthur takes a deep breath and steps further into the room. _This is a good thing, this is a good thing, relax._ Dead men are easy to make disappear.

Pettigrew's covered with blood and upon closer examination, seems to have been beheaded. _Jugular’s a major artery,_ Arthur's brain supplies. _If cut, it bleeds a lot._ Crouch Junior has no clear sign of how he died, only blood spatter on him. _Probably Pettigrew's blood._ Pettigrew really got the rough end of the stick here.

The biggest drawback of these two men is that they _shouldn't_ disappear. Junior used to be a Death Eater, Arthur sees no reason why he wouldn't have joined them again. Crouch Senior might be involved with Junior's faked death. That needs to be exposed, it isn't safe to have corrupt officials in the Ministry. Pettigrew's connection here is rather suspect and Arthur's starting to feel like Pettigrew might be a Death Eater. The dead Death Eaters needed to be found, so they could be exposed and start an investigation. It was essential for the safety of everyone.

"Did you destroy the letter?" Alastor enters the room. Arthur holds out the letter and Alastor takes it. There's a beat as Alastor looks Arthur over. "Did you bring anything I asked you to?"

"I don't think we should bury them."

"They need to be out of here!"

Only two people at Alastor's house? There was a very specific plan in the works, nobody in their right mind would attempt anything with only two people. There have to be others involved.

"Any guesses on why they came for you?"

"Junior here had polyjuice in his pocket." Alastor picks up a bottle off the end table and Arthur takes it. He puts it in his pocket. Easier to keep track of things if he has them. Alastor sighs. "Guess they wanted to replace me."

The reason is obvious. Death Eaters? Alastor, attacked out of the blue? Likely connected to what’s happening the next day. Alastor's becoming a Hogwarts professor.

"Harry," Arthur states. Alastor nods.

"Now, Pettigrew here, I don't get," Alastor says with a frown. "He wasn't a Death Eater."

"Might’ve been working with Black." Arthur shrugs. "Looks like he faked his death."

"Suppose so."

They stand there in silence.

The bodies have to go somewhere, they can't stay in Alastor's house. Arthur's going to have to ensure they'll be found. The search for the others involved is going to have to start right away. First, he has to make the bodies easy to move. They definitely don’t want to lose a head, that’d ruin any chances at identification.

Arthur glances over and reaches into his jacket pocket. Alastor has his wand out in an instant and is now at a safe distance to hex Arthur. Arthur pulls out the shrunken chest. Alastor brings his wand down without an apology.

Arthur tosses the chest towards a wall and it grows bigger automatically. It lands with a thud and another thud as it steadies itself against the wall. Alastor walks over to the chest and peers inside.

"Ah, the supplies." Alastor reaches inside and begins rummaging around.

"We put the bodies in there, easier transport, less suspicious." Arthur eyes the living room. There's still a lot of blood. "Might clean up after we do that."

"Where're the bodies going?"

"Was thinking about putting them somewhere they'll be found. Odds are there's someone else involved."

"Bring ‘em to the Diggorys maybe? Amos'll report it right away."

"They've got a kid, I'm not risking traumatizing him. Got to be an Auror or somebody in MLE."

Alastor nods and pulls out Rid-of-Blood. It's a tiny bottle and looks even smaller in his hand. Alastor groans. Arthur strides forward and picks it out of Alastor's hand.

"I'll clean up," Arthur says and Alastor winces. Arthur frowns. Alastor's seen blood before, it shouldn't be a problem right now.

"Ah, well, this wasn't where it happened."

"Where then?"

Alastor pulls out the shovel. He pulls out the towels. Arthur holds out his arm for Alastor to pile the towels on. Alastor does so then looks in the chest again. It's empty.

"Bedroom," Alastor finally says. Arthur nods and heads into the hallway. "Hold it, you're not going in there alone!"

"Do you really want to watch me clean?"

There's a pause. Arthur sighs.

"Just put the bodies in the chest, alright?" It's an easy job for Alastor, he already moved them. Then there's a clang, probably from the shovel. Arthur wishes he brought the other shovel, he likes this one. Or maybe he should've brought two. In hindsight, he probably should have, Alastor would have just made him do all the digging otherwise.

The bedroom isn't as bad as Arthur thought it'd be. The bed has a good amount of blood splatter but the wall right next to the door has a lot more. Pettigrew must've fallen backwards as he got beheaded. Arthur can see a faint cut in the wall. That's going to be a pain to fix. He's suddenly grateful for all the sword fights his brothers used to have indoors.

After cleaning the sheets the best he can, Arthur shoves them into the sink and runs cold water. He wrings it out then puts it in the washer, running cold water again. While he's waiting, he goes back into the bedroom and uses the towels soaked in Rid-of-Blood to wipe down the walls. The floor isn't too tough either. Right now, Arthur's biggest concerns are the cut in the wall and the burn marks behind the bed. Pettigrew and Junior definitely put up a good fight before going down.

Once he's done wiping down, he moves the sheets over to the dryer. To pass the time, he scans the hallway slowly to see if there is any trail of blood Alastor's missed. Sure enough, there is so Arthur cleans that up too.

Arthur arrives at the doorway and watches Alastor who's frantically scrubbing at a spot of blood. The floor in the living room looks to be in much better shape than before. Alastor did a good job cleaning up. _The chest needs to be cleaned,_ Arthur realizes. _So much to do, not enough time._

Arthur's pretty busy, he always is. Especially right now, after what happened at the Quidditch World Cup. Going in for work at five, leaving at eight at best. He barely has free time and he barely has time to help anyone cover up murders. Not that he's been asked before Alastor. Actually, that is a bit odd. Arthur isn't known for keeping a level head (especially not after starting a fight in Flourish and Blotts) or lying well. Why him?

"Why me?" Arthur asks. Alastor startles and drops his dishtowel. He looks over to Arthur wildly.

"What?"

"Why did you write me? You could've asked anyone else for help."

Alastor just turns away and stares down at the spot of blood. Arthur strides across the room and places a hand on his shoulder. Alastor jerks but doesn't push him off. They stay that way for a while.

Fletcher's unreliable. Amos's pretty trustworthy but he's not the sort to help with murders. _I'm not the sort to help either,_ Arthur reminds himself. But he can't ignore the niggling voice that tells him he _is_ the exact sort since he's currently helping with a murder. Any of the Aurors Alastor could've gone to probably would've stabbed him in the back even if they had killed someone before. Dubious connections are just that, dubious.

"Don't worry," Arthur says finally. "Nobody'll care who killed them." He's definitely going to make it look like they killed each other anyway. Better to cast away any suspicions.

Alastor nods once. Arthur steps back and returns to the bedroom. He thinks Alastor needs some more time to process. Arthur finishes fixing the cut in the wall and manages to conjure up the right shade of color to paint over the burn marks. It's harder than it sounds since Alastor's allowed his room to become faded and paint chips keep falling. By the time he comes out, Alastor's sitting on the couch staring at the floor. Arthur doesn't see any blood.

The chest is closed and Arthur picks up his shovel. No way he's leaving that behind, it's his best shovel. Maybe he'll set the bodies up near Robards' place. That man's definitely going straight to Bones. Plus he's single and very much experienced with dead bodies. Arthur grabs one end of the chest and Alastor stands up.

"No need to come, I can do this myself." Arthur takes out his wand and Alastor doesn't flinch this time.

"I..." Alastor blinks and looks down. One thing Arthur's always liked about Alastor was the fact he had the lowest killing rate of the Aurors. Alastor kept killing as his last resort. Alastor looks up again. "I probably shouldn't let you do this."

"No," Arthur agrees. He looks down at his watch. "But you've got an early start, you need some sleep." 

Alastor looks at the chest then shuts his eyes. He nods slowly. "I do need to sleep."

"I can come by Hogwarts and help you move in."

"Tell me what you hear at the Ministry."

"I always do."

With that, Arthur Apparates out.


End file.
